Sam "The Cosmic Drifter"

You might be a redneck if you name a star after your four legged friend.

I’m going to tell you a story. I’ve told this story on the old blog and it is about my good friend Sam.

I don’t know how most people are but I think they are a lot like me. I get attached to animals. They become part of the family. Sam became part of my family about four years ago. She was just a little puppy and I fell in love with her on sight. Right after I got her she nearly died which served to only tighten the bond between Sam and myself. The site WVOutdoors.org and subsequently this blog was started because of our adventures in the mountains.

Sam was a very intelligent animal. She had a nose like a hound. We were coming back from a hike one evening and were about a hundred yards from an old building that was located on the edge of my property. Sam started acting real weird with her attention focused on the building. The thing about Sam was that she was afraid of everything. But in this case her curiosity overcame her fear. I knew almost immediately that there was something or someone in the old building. Sam was never afraid unless there was something to be afraid of. She approached this building behind me. I was curious too. I wondered if she had actually smelled something in the building from that distance. Sure enough when I opened the door. A local drunk was sleeping in a corner. He had a home not far from where I lived at the time but I knew him to be basically harmless so I let him sleep there for the night. Then went to get Sam a scooby snack.

That is just one of many stories that I have about Sam. A little over a year ago, I was gone to a job and Sam got away from the sitter. Since I was always in the mountains with her she had no life experience with a road. She didn’t know how dangerous it was. I probably don’t need to tell you what happened.

Losing Sam as my friend was just absolutely devastating. It went a long way towards taking the wind out of my sails. I didn’t want to hike, the blog floundered big time. I just hurt when I tried to hike without my friend. I still haven’t gotten back into the amount of hiking I did with Sam. I think about her a lot when I do visit the mountains.

Recently I was given the opportunity to name a star. I thought it would be kind of cool to name a star after Sam. That way, when I go on the AT hike, I can kind of take her with me. Foolish?… maybe. But I feel good about it.

Sam is located in the constellation Sagittarius, my birth sign. Maybe she will bring me good luck.